The Life of John RuskinCollingwood, W. G. (William Gershom)
Philosophy
The Life of John Ruskin
Collingwood, W. G. (William Gershom)
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Biography; Ruskin, John, 1819-1900
"If I have a definite point to reach, and common work to do at
it--I take people--anybody--with me; but all my best _mental_ work
is necessarily done alone; whenever I wanted to think, in Savoy, I
used to leave Coutet at home. Constantly I have been alone on the
Glacier des Bois--and far among the loneliest aiguille recesses. I
found the path up the Brezon above Bonneville in a lonely walk one
Sunday; I saw the grandest view of the Alps of Savoy I ever
gained, on the 2nd of January, 1862, alone among the snow wreaths
on the summit of the Salève. You need not fear for me on 'Langdale
Pikes' after that."
In September the second article appeared in _Fraser._ "Only a genius
like Mr. Ruskin could have produced such hopeless rubbish," says a
newspaper of the period. Far worse than any newspaper criticism was the
condemnation of Denmark Hill. His father, whose eyes had glistened over
early poems and prose eloquence, strongly disapproved of this heretical
economy. It was a bitter thing that his son should become prodigal of a
hardly earned reputation, and be pointed at for a fool. And it was
intensely painful for a son "who had never given his father a pang that
could be avoided," as old Mr. Ruskin had once written, to find his
father, with one foot in the grave, turning against him. In December the
third paper appeared. History repeated itself, and with the fourth paper
the heretic was gagged. A year after, his father died; and these
_Fraser_ articles were laid aside until the end of 1871, when they were
taken up again, and published on New Year's Day 1872, as "Munera
Pulveris."
From the outset, however, he was not without supporters. Carlyle wrote
on June 30, 1862:
"I have read, a month ago, your _First_ in _Fraser_, and ever since
have had a wish to say to it and you, _Euge macte nova virtute._ I
approved in every particular; calm, definite, clear; rising into
the sphere of _Plato_ (our almost best), wh'h in exchange for the
sphere of _Macculloch, Mill and Co._ is a mighty improvement! Since
that, I have seen the little _green_ book, too; reprint of your
_Cornhill_ operations,--about 2/3 of wh'h was read to me (_known_
only from what the contradict'n of sinners had told me of it);--in
every part of wh'h I find a high and noble sort of truth, not one
doctrine that I can intrinsically dissent from, or count other than
salutary in the extreme, and pressingly needed in Engl'd above
all."
Erskine of Linlathen wrote to Carlyle, August 7th, 1862:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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